The invention relates to a hydraulic header for a heating system, with an elongated header housing whose longitudinal axis runs vertically in the installation condition and whose interior forms a water chamber for the hot water of the heating system, with one boiler inlet flow connection and one boiler return flow connection each which are provided at a vertical distance to each other on the one longitudinal side of the header housing, and with one consumer inlet flow connection and one consumer return flow connection each which are provided at a vertical distance to each other on the other longitudinal side of the header housing so that one boiler side and one heating circuit side is created on the header housing.
DE 44 07 807 A1 discloses a heating system with one or several heating boilers which jointly supply consumers, wherein a hydraulic header—between inlet and return—is connected in the form of a long rectangular or round vessel with the inlet and, respectively, return nozzles being allocated to the two end areas. Connections of the inlet flow nozzles and the return flow nozzles are necked out in the connection area with the vessel wall. Triangular baffle plates are provided in the end areas of the nozzles.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,237,929 discloses a pipe manifold, especially for the inlet flow and return flow of hot water heaters, with an elongated manifold housing separated into an inlet and return flow chamber separated by a dividing wall in longitudinal direction, as well as with the line connections passed to the outside from the inlet flow chamber and the return flow chamber, said connections being aligned at least with their exterior ends in the longitudinal direction of the manifold housing. Openings communicating with the line connections are provided—offset to each other in longitudinal direction in the outside wall of the manifold housing—on both sides of a longitudinal edge of the dividing wall.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,092,734 discloses a manifold for connecting at least two circuits of a central heating system with a liquid heat transmission medium wherein the circuits each comprise one inlet flow line and one return flow line. A partition plate is provided in the manifold which essentially runs entirely through a hollow interior area and comprises several communicating openings. The manifold is horizontally provided in the installation position so that an upper and lower interior area of the manifold is formed.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,503,368; 4,248,378; 4,546,142; 5,316,384; 5,425,503 as a divisional application for U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,316,384; 5,738,277 and its continuation U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,829,677; 5,881,763 and 5,950,575 respectively relate to a heating system or, respectively, hot water heating systems with the allocated components.
A hydraulic header of the initially mentioned type is known from DE-Z Gasser, Walter: “Steuerung und Regelung von Mehrkesselanlagen” (Control and Regulation of Multi-Boiler Systems) in: IKZ-Haustechnik, H.6/1994, pages 66-70; page 68, illustration 4. Such a hydraulic header has the objective of ensuring the required hot water volume flows in the boiler circuit on the one side and in the consumer circuit (heating circuit) on the other side. Furthermore, the hydraulic header provides for a hydraulic decoupling of these circuits such that the header is practically without a pressure loss. This requirement is met with a flow velocity of a maximum of approximately 0.2 m/s at the nominal hot water volume flow. From this results a relatively large cross section of the interior of the hydraulic header. At the same time, the length of the hydraulic header—between the inlet flow connections on the one hand and the return flow connections on the other hand which are here provided at an offset opposite each other—should be triple to quadruple the diameter of the hydraulic header.
To achieve that the hydraulic header can be connected with a simplified installation to a pertinent heating system, the German utility model DE 20 2004 009 356 assigned to the assignee of the present invention proposes that the boiler inlet flow connection, relative to the consumer inlet flow connection, is provided offset toward the bottom.
Due to the fact that the boiler inlet flow connection is provided offset toward the bottom, relative to the consumer inlet flow connection, a smaller distance between the boiler inlet flow connection and the boiler return flow connection is advantageously achieved for an adjustment to small terminating spaces provided on the boiler side. DE 20 2004 009 356 yet also proved itself in practice such that—in the header between the boiler inlet flow connection and the boiler return flow connection—no short-circuit flow develops, by providing a dividing wall in the interior of the header housing. In the interior of the header housing, the dividing wall is connected with the boiler side and forms a channel so that the heated hot water coming from the boiler is conveyed—within the header housing—into its upper part, from the boiler inlet flow connection arranged relatively far below on the header housing.